


Dreams of a Time Lord

by AslansCompass



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:09:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What does the Doctor dream?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams of a Time Lord

 

 

 

Dreams of a Time Lord by Vilinye

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:**

* * *

  
He has not had good dreams since he was eight. The Untempered Schism was a glimpse into Time itself–no wonder that some go mad. The greater wonder is that some stay sane.

The nightmares are always worse when he's alone. Just knowing that there's another person in the TARDIS helps in the moments he wakes from a nightmare. And he calms himself by speaking as if to a child, "Someone's in the next room, they'll hear you, go back to sleep. You're safe." But the last part is always a lie.

Regardless of how full the TARDIS is, the nightmares continue. He is surrounded by the ghosts of all those who died for me or at my hand. And he wonders if, as some say, anything comes after the last death, and what might await me there.

He's too young to be so old. His body is ages younger than his brain–even his eyes. But all the things these eyes have seen since that day on Gallifrey…so many things; a thousand alien sunrises on strange planets, a hundred battles over silly disputes, and so much more.

Sometimes he dreams of regeneration; every single one cycling through his mind with all the pain, dread, and furious emotions.

Dreamless nights are rare mercies, the one time he doesn't carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. But the draughts of Lethe never last long enough. Sometimes the dreams start out well–better than the truth, but then they bit savagely with renewed venom.

He saves Troy, but Rome never rises.

The Daleks never leave Skaro, but a race twice as brutal claims their place.

Susan remains in the TARDIS, growing old alongside him, as prim and proper a Time Lady as any at the Academy. And her fervant belief in non-intervention leads her to betray him to the CIA. 

Sometimes he dreams of Gallifrey as it was when he was young, before the word "time" held such terror. Of the peaceful days before he stole the TARDIS. But then the horror of the Time War rushes in, complete with the panic of an entire civilization falling apart. And the whole planet whispers, "It was you, Doctor. You did this to your people!"

Last of the Time Lords.

He can't escape it, not even in his sleep.

All his dreams are nightmares.


End file.
